One day at a time, then mark it off with a big red cross on the calendar.

You really neeed to plan days out etc. This gives the DCs something to look forward to if they can actually see it written down on the calendar. Then, because they know they have 2 or 3 different activities to look forward to, such as swimming or a new park, they tend to stop moaning about boredom on the days when they have nothing planned IYSWIM.

My DDs are 6 and 10 and am trying to enjoy spending the time with them (especially the eldest) while they are still happy to spend time together as a family.

Because I teach, it is my holiday too and I always have a list of household jobs to get done as well as planning to spend plenty of days out with the girls. We make a list at the start of the hols of a few things that we'd like to do and plan our weeks carefully. I try to have a mix of things to do in the 6 weeks and spread them out. Part of the hard work for me is keeping busy without going broke. This year we will have

Spent a couple of days in my classroom - I had jobs to do, they love playing there. 1 weekend away at Haven. 2 or 3 of the expensive types of days out - zoo, spaceport, aquarium etc. We always take a packed lunch and the only extra expense might be an ice cream OR a couple of quid to spend in the shop.

I scour the little magazines we got sent home from school to find cheap ways to have a day out. Our library do story and craft afternoons for £1, the local country park does activities like pebble painting and clay modelling for £1.75. I collected vouchers from the same magazine to get us into a play place for half price and to get a child into techniquest for free. I traded my tesco vouchers in for days out vouchers (tripled the value) to get into space port and Techniquest. Our local sweet shop does a £6 activity offer where the kids do something crafty to take home - wooden box/window art/small ceramic figure - and have a pancake or an icecream. Free coffee for the adult. The Vue cinema extends the weekend kids club to every day of the holiday so we can go and see a kids film for £1.75 each. The films have been out ages ago, but there are usually a few that we weren't interested in enough to pay full price for a few months ago, but that are worth a couple of quid on a rainy morning. They do popcorn and a drink for £1.50 so it is under a tenner for us to see a film inc popcorn. . They have a friend to play a couple of times, and usually end up being invited back somewhere. If the weather is nice, we head to the park and meet up with other Mums. We use the free swimming sessions at the local pool (been there this morning).

Wow....I'm busier than I thought. We actually end up having to consciously 'book' a few days to stay in for....on the plus side there is less housework. If you aren't in, you aren't making a mess.